Category: 7.2

Super quick post as I just wanted to show you guys a video that happened a couple of days ago. Sure as you all know by know, I’m a fan of Madskillzz. Great videos. great stream and super informative. If you haven’t seen his work please follow the links:

Turox is a Mythic 1 Resto Druid. He is on the same server as Medacus – Anachronos. I remember before rolling druid in legion, looking over Turox’s logs and his character on things like Wow-heroes and Warcraftlogs. Wasn’t until I really got into Medacus I fully looked up to this player!

It’s one thing to watch Slootbag or Sco, just smashing and being the ‘stars’, like a different league, separate from us normal raiders. But look at Turox I was able to set a benchmark. Something to aim for within realistic expectations while still being a moon-high bar to set.

I have been building a rapport with Madskillzz over the weeks of watching, always volunteering to heal during his balance ‘phase’ and on one night while in a queue for a Mythic+, Turox joins!! ‘seen Medacus and Madskillzz in a group. Couldn’t resist’

Holy boomerang batman! Medacus is rolling with the big hitters. Oh damn, I aim! can I hit hard enough? I’m well out of my league. No, relax damn it. You’ve healed a 19 no sweat and if anything rolling with super-pros will just make it easier. I’ll be fine.

Still, can’t believe this group….Gourt has joined! another full Mythic cleared druid in the party and from personal experience not only an outstanding tank but a generally awesome guy..hell at this rate there won’t be anything for me to heal.

Check out how it went… Absolutely gutted that my voice didn’t come through on the recording as expected but better than nothing.

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It was the 3rd or 4th, something like that. A good friend, excellent player and avid supporter of the journey, Kelssya mentioned that the class order hall mounts will be obtainable by the 6th…not overly excited to be honest, due to the fact that every…single Druid will have it. So much for individuality.

But if there is a quest in the Dreamgrove for me and a free mount in the end, then why not.

It wasn’t until the 6th and a very severe lack of quest givers, did I realise that the Legionfall campaign on the broken shore was the build up!!

I had been following along pretty much as they were realised. All the way up to the ‘find hidden chests’ damn that was a sucky mission. I don’t want to fly around the Broken Shore looking for chests that will give little but more order resources lol

Straight off to download HandyNotes and every other addon to make this go smoother. I’m sure at places the counter glitched. Probably due to the fact Turox ask if I wanted to heal a Mythic+, actually think I ran flew to the dungeon before he sent invites out. Just to get away from treasure hunting.

I felt like that one guy you see on the beach with a metal detector. Normally socks and sandals, and almost certainly a bum-pack full of can ring-pulls. I wanted this done as quickly as I could…before anyone sees me xD

HandyNotes made this a quick ordeal. Before I knew it I was smashing through the quests proceeding. Kill Demons, Collect shards. The normal ‘lets pad this expansion’ quests from Blizzard.

Going to get this mount in no time. Until the time gate quest, ‘complete three Legion missions’ aww man!

Six hours later and I’m sure only one mission was completed, but there was a large shiny gold hand in mark on my map. I’m not going to complain about all bugs in Warcraft!.

Flying through this now…

Quest in the Dreamgrove is waiting for me, finally. Surrounded by this point by a million owl-bird-thingy-druids.

Time to start the quest for a new mount.

Recorded my first ‘come along’ video (link below) rough around the edges would be an understatement 🙂 but baby steps and all that. check it out and let me know what you think about it.

Was a rather short questline but that was expected due to the fact that Blizzard had to produce one quest line for each class! that’s a lot of content.

wasn’t until I tried to find the ‘bird’ in mounts that I finally realised that this a mod to the instant flight form for druids hahaha typical Medacus getting half the information onboard!

If you got this far into the blog, Thank you. Click Follow on Twitch or Subscribe on Youtube. Share this on whichever social media platform you wish and/or leave a comment. Join the journey and watch as Medacus prepares to breach the Tomb of Saragas.

The beginning of a fresh week and Vantis Runes for Elisande time. Getting into Phase two was a promising aspect as phases become easier as each transition occurs. Leaving close to a month to work on the dreaded Gul’dan! and that tasty cutting edge achievement.

Pausing at Elisande Heroic for the normal kill of last two bosses, before continuing progression. Dupz is prepping us for a significant speech.

Oh man, is this a team re-shuffle? knowing, more or less how things have been going perhaps the raid leaders are troubled with performance or setup. Considering as a team we have cleared everything, bar Mythic Helya at a blistering speed, sometimes quite a bit quicker. Currently sitting at fourth for progression on the realm (as a team) RAZE Mythic 1 takes the top spot. I can’t see what would be wrong.

Appears like this is going to be a fairly grave discussion no matter what, though the tone has been set. Dupz and Marrowgar are articulating the burn-out that many, many players are facing during Nighthold. Holy shit! This is a ‘Do you want to continue progression or not’ talk!!

No, No, No, No! 8/10. The composition has settled to an all-star lineup. We each out gear Gul’dan by an actual mile. Nearly if not everyone has a concordance, trait that the end boss wasn’t tuned around. Some in the group have even got concordance in a second spec.

Surely everyone will realise that if we stop now all that grind would have been for nothing. Could of all waited three days before Tomb and had more Artifact Knowledge levels to just breeze through it.

Surely everyone will realise that there’s no need to play Warcraft outside of raid times if the burn is kicking in. No grind. No gear hunting. No worries.

Surely at this point, we can even take the foot off the pedal on progression night and IF we down a boss then cool, if not, nevermind. Relaxed, chilled raid with friends with the goal of getting one step closer.

Surly, as Mythic two team, we don’t see ourselves as the ‘Shadow of Mythic one’. The team that just messes around through tiers. The team that just gives up a month before, with only Gul’dan left between us and the finish line.

Surly….

Staw-poll results would suggest that the burn is real. Tier progression is over… 🙁

Completely deflated at this point. Smashed Concordance towards the beginning of Star Augar as many others had. Can’t believe now that the work has been completed, we are going to stop. The burn has been and gone, this is the moment you reap the rewards.

Imagine going fishing. You set the bait, cast your line and wait. Hours go past, you re-cast. You keep fishing. You keep your eye on the prize. Sat all day you finally get a bite, and you fight this thing all the way in. Caught in the net, this hard work has paid off, she’s a beauty.

You can feel the weight as you carry to your car, ready to cook. Driving home from a successful day, ready to taste that sweet, sweet reward. As you pull up you can almost smell the cooking meat…Only to get out the car and think ‘I’m too tried to carry it indoors’

I know these are just my views and opinions, but I’ve also been able to see where the other side is coming from. I fully understand the wanting to chill before Tomb. The last thing the team needs walking in there is comp issues straight off the bat. Both sides of the argument are justified and valid, even if diametrically opposed to my own.

I may have sent off a rather emotionally driven, rather than logical message off to Dupz. Asking about the current recruitment for Mythic 1. Subsequently feeling like I’m turning my back on the guys. Which isn’t what I meant.

I play a lot and I enjoy being pushed, I remember joining Mythic 2 back in mid-Emerald Nightmare. Walking in never Mythic Raiding before (one or two bosses) as the bottom healer, and I’d like to say finishing a little higher now xD and that curve, that drive to be competitive was a real buzz.

Perhaps I’m overreacting, maybe walking in with a fresh team will be the best thing that could have happened. One thing for sure though. I won’t be breaking!

Had a cheeky hour at the end of the Star Augar kill on Thursday, so I’ve started my blog off with a blatant lie! I feel terrible…honest. Was exactly what the raid needed after having to play near perfectly during Star Augar to stop wiping the raid. “Get your stupid out now” – Dupz announced. Light-hearted fun, no fear of performance or mocking. Another lie, still lots of mocking occurred!

Spending an hour basically not hitting the boss, but dodging the Arcanetic rings. The way we were dodging this there wasn’t hope for much else to be fair lol Stacking tight to begin…first ring hits….there are people outside of my healing range, running in circles and if I had to bet were actively hitting as many rings as they could. Was such a laugh!
Beginning of the first real day on Elisande hopes aren’t high for a kill. Normally a week progression is about right, with two on Star Augar. Perhaps the difficulty is jumping higher than I first thought, maybe we should order two weeks worth of Vantis runes.

Great to have Narite back in the group, there’s no way of comparing how you are performing unless you have another Resto in the group! Jammy git is rolling with Velen’s and Alman Thul’s Wisdom now, this guys luck! He was sporting Tearstone (back when super OP). I think his raid gear is also close to 915 almost 7 ILs higher. I will not let him beat me!

Super competitive healing roster and Narite and I are the only double healer class, largely due I feel this is due to Resto beeing OP. Which goes along with patch 7.2.5 and ‘re-balancing’. Best get praying to RNGesus for some serious TitanFrog gear.

It would certainly appear that we have got all our stupid out on previous attempts, or at least as much as the night could take. I’ve got a whole lot of stupid inside me. Orbs are starting to look doable, people are moving as more of a unit than a headless chicken.

The DPSs aim is to transition the boss after the third orb phase, that seems a light year away. The smoother the orbs go, the more second nature it becomes and the opener becomes a set routine the numbers, healing and damage will skyrocket. Currently getting seven orbs xD numbers will have to certainly rocket to hit the target.

Rolling with Tranq on the pull, feel the waves of damage it’s better to pull out a saving Tranq more often. Makes for more forgiving progression as at this point everything is sloppy, Pools in wrong place, Adds free hitting annoyed hunters and such.

Another reason for rolling tranq is that I feel there aren’t enough GCD’s to keep up a decent enough Germination uptime to warrant losing a tier talent, my bones are telling me this is completely wrong assumption right now though. I’m noticing at this point in early progression that I’m not actually casting anything during the orb phase. This is a massive amount of downtime.

Tranq isn’t so bad as I’m rocking the Crocs…legendary tranq boots so could be a competitive choice. Nope, not even slightly! rocking about 600k HPS and raid is wiping within the three-minute mark, so no need to shorten to two minutes, even if helpful for progression.

Narite is smashing the 1 million HPS mark often now. These pulls are short, perhaps he’s just blowing his load early and will be out of mana by the third phase. Whispers “how’s the mana?” he’s gonna come back with someone absurd like ‘low! I’m spamming my ass off’ Nope, not even slightly xD god damn that Druid, why does my rival have to push me so hard!!!!

I’m the designated range puller at the start. I don’t really get the reasoning behind the setup for this. I know that the first to hit Elisande drops the pool, but I’m completely lost as to why the other members need to stack behind the pool in a corner?? Couldn’t they just stand 8-10 yards or however big the pool is to the right? I must be missing something.

Attempts are going really well. Hit phase two a couple of times, with the general movement around orbs seeming to become easier. This is allowing the DPS to put a larger focus on their own requirements. The fundamental aim of this boss would appear to be an emphasis on DPS switching and timing. The timing of when the adds die, especially the Slow Add, if killed exactly right it can slow up to three rounds of orbs.

YAY! blessing again, got to send Sindel a gift in the post 🙂

Orb death, after a practice hour and now another hour working at it is starting to get frowned upon. Rightly so, Marrowgar announces that this isn’t something that we should be dying to. It’s a large, glowing orb, that moves in almost exactly the same way every pull. come on how much easier could it be…

The pull after marrow said that – DEAD, to ‘easy’ orbs!!! xD

Tranq’s the moment both adds are active is swapping the position of Narite and I around on the HPS board, but only halfway through the CD of a reduced Tranq. Initial burst healing followed by a lull of nearly nothing for two minutes. Although that two-minute mark really lines up nicely.

Takes so much concentration and full attention to dodge orb, throw out HoT’s, position for singularity, predict damage patterns and worry about meter lol didn’t even notice the tank was dead at one point while hogging a resurrection!!

Must remember to make a /target macro for Elisande

Pool spawning positioning seems to be a big issue, I personally can’t see why? Due to how quickly the phase changes and cleans the room, as long as you don’t drop at a tanks feet, as that would result in potential DPS loss or slap bang in the middle of a speed buff I can’t see an issue.

I’ve utterly torn in the tier 90 talents, maybe Spring Blossoms can pull the numbers as we are stacking better now.

Break at half way mark – I’ve taken germination, progression is making the orbs cleaner, there is a marked improvement on the raid positioning in general and the phase is transitioning quicker. All good, all round.

HPS is much higher already, and I can feel I just need more attempts using it on this fight now to really push it. Almost convinced myself there was a single fight herein, which Germ/Shoulders combo wasn’t the only way to go. Nope, not even close!

Walked straight into an orb in mid, never seen one there before – DEAD. Oh, must remember when running the Germ/Shoulders combo to take the Crocs off and put shoulders on….No idea how many pulls hahaha

Macro issues all round xD ‘ummmm…. Dupz I’ve not been interrupting’ – as the chat box is filled with jibberish remotely resembling a target interpret macro. Silence from voice comms as you can just tell Dupz is in the middle of a deep, and meaningful face-palm.

Another orb cuddle from Medacus – DEAD talking about performance. I’m concerned about Bungie one of the latest trials joined during Star Augar, maybe earlier. I don’t think he made it onto the team. The fear is real haha

DEADMedacus hits Orb again like a magnet to a Hard Drive :'( only saving grace is I’m not the only one, perhaps I can hide amongst the dead and the leaders won’t notice this time. Mwhahaha!!

Starting to think that the phases could possibly be pushed a little quicker at this point now, but like every boss in Nighthold, there is an ‘anti-farm’ mechanic, exoskeleton for Skorpyron, Overwhelming power buff for Chono, Cake for Trilliax and so on.

This would be the slow and the necessity to ‘lose’ DPS killing it. Wonder if there’s a way around it. Raid wide defensive, followed by Roar and just run through. Pure Cheese.

Our friendly RogueEuron is shouting out when to switch to the boss, rather than the leader’s plan….Brave, brave man. Joking.
Not brave, foolish.

Medacus eats another Orb – DEAD…DAMN IT!

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Made the mistake of leaving a blog post a couple of days as I’ve been grinding AP for concordance. Worse idea ever as can’t remember a damn thing, like the moment you go to the shop for eggs, milk and bread and return with nothing but bacon, thinking, knew I forgot something!! 🙂 bright side though you’ve got bacon….perhaps I should continue writing after lunch.

Medacus jumped straight into progression on Wednesday, Dupz announced that due to the time constraints before the opening of Tomb the only way that we stand a chance of obtaining cutting edge is to drop the farm runs almost completely (bar Elisande and Gul’dan HC). Even Mythic kills at this point don’t seem worth the time. Mythic+ has completely changed the need to grind farm night. Although with tier pieces still being so strong it’s a shame those pieces aren’t on the dungeon loot table also.

I’m starting to question the need for the last two HC bosses, every week 30 minutes are used on a boss that most must surely have every piece possible. I’ve had to condense the progression nights into one complete blog, mostly due to the time for Concordance but also, the latest run was day 5. Only so much you can blog about on reoccurring attempts at a boss, although I guess I could Copy+Paste for each and really bulk this site out xD

we are all super excited after the fairly motivational speech Dupz delivered in regards to completing Nighthold and becoming a top percentage of guilds downing Gul’dan. This is an amazing feeling, the prospect that an average druid can be ranked in any shape or form is a novel experience. Kinda undermines the core foundation of the blog, follow a real Druid, not a superstar that gets it right all the time!

Apparently, this is where the requirements and mechanics become..struggling to find a word to describe something above ‘unforgiving’ as the last 3 bosses have been. I remember a number of times, especially Spellblade, having an ‘if one person fails, all fail’ ethos to the fight. This is no exception if you mess up Marks, you die, if you don’t drop pools, perfectly, you die. If everything is perfect, I mean not just standing and performing mechanics super crispy but procs need to line up as well, you may have a chance. Praying to RNGsus not to have that certain ability spawn on you during healing intensive moments.

I believe that this is described as the first boss that involves melee mechanics, and with a generally melee heavy comp that was apparent from the start. The knock on effect from having a melee heavy comp isn’t just more points of potential failure, but also after each attempt night, the chances that one of the many million melees in the group needs to be replaced. Means the refining positioning pulls start almost from scratch again.

This is not an issue solely centred around the bosses feet, the same rule of cause and effect occurs in the range camp also. New ranged members joined on the last attempt day, and I swear I turned full Sheldon ‘you’re in my spot, you’re in my spot’ I stand on the blue dots near mid on the right-hand side. Not too far back to limit full heals on the team or kiss the crystals being dropped on edge of encounter and certainly not close enough to the chaos that is the melee circle.

We started four healing this. HPS is so low throughout all phases but the last. It’s the lack of GCDs that’s the issue since the amount of individual damage going out can really one shot people in a couple of seconds. If one or two healers are tied up with Fel Nova, then there is a real and visible strain on the health. Yeah sure, to begin with, the more possibly avoidable damage will be taken and this always hurts, but that wasn’t an issue.

We switched to three heals on one of the nights, believe the aim was to count on RNG of Fel Nova phase, and get everyone plus an extra DPS to the third phase, full nuke.

Pulls could swing as far from being perfectly clean to a mess depending entirely on how many healers were busy with Fel Nova. I don’t find it too much of an issue as a Druid, Spamming rejev on a random target as it will last for close to 30 secs now. I can certainly relate to other classes though…and na, na, na na na, na Druids rock! xD

Couldn’t believe a Whisper I had from Dupz mid raid ‘That’s the 5th you’ve got the mark wrong, watch it’ what?!!! That night was an absolutely clean night! Don’t get me wrong we all know how many times DEAD appears in these blogs, part of the charm is Medacus isn’t perfect.

I had to say something as I was unsure where this information or the idea come from. The previous talk about a competitive team and with Narite waiting to join the team at any moment, I couldn’t let it go without defence.

Lucky I remembered exactly who I bumped with. I vocally asked Ebinissia if I bumped her and was safe, which she replied in agreeance. I’m not one to argue, but when I categorically and undeniably DIDN’T wipe the raid, I have to question it. The ‘Recap’ option when you die would say that Medacus exploded, whether this is just wrong or if when a wipe is called I jump for a wrong one on purpose I don’t know?!

Perhaps the logs can reveal more information on this in which I can post to clear my name lol, Of course, this is all I’m thinking about now during the subsequent pulls, have I? Did I? no I know I didn’t! But why did he say that? DEAD oh I’m standing in pools of doom and didn’t even noticed, overthinking a simple whisper…For the rest of the night.

Managed to get to the last phase of the boss, YES raid wide damage that needs constant topping up.. My time to shine!

I’ve been super quiet publishing blogs, think the last batch were regarding the kill of High Botanist Tel’arn, nearly two weeks ago!! The chief reason for this, other than the social media explosion and subscriber mail list creation for the site consuming my time, was [Concordance of the Legionfall].

Mentioned in a previous blog that members of Mythic 1 were beginning to get [Concordance], left me thinking I was a part-time player, sitting on 47 traits at the time or something equally noobie 🙂

Mythic 2 raiders started announcing that they too had achieved this great feat. Now I’m motivated! (motivated or pissed that I haven’t) It’s almost expected that our ‘big brother’ Mythic team would get [Concordance] before, then we, and the cascade continues throughout guild structure, Heroic team, normal and so on.

But raiders in my team have it, I should have it. I will get it! I was hovering around the top 100 for Artifact Power obtained on the realm for so long. Once I hit the fourth golden trait that changed. The numbers got so big and the days left until Tomb of Sargaras was so distant. By the time it came close, Artifact Knowledge could almost carry me to [Concordance] with little effort.

That competitive spirit of mine reared it’s ugly head again, I had to grind. Grind like a boss to catch up. I decided to abandon doing dailies, world quests and legion invasions every day. Only smashing all faction three caches in a morning, as to not miss the chests.

Don’t get me wrong, there is Artifact Power there and you can rack up a substantial amount. Plus side of the above is there is no way you won’t receive rewards. In comparison to battlegrounds for instance, if you lose that’s 15 minutes grind time wasted

I wanted a higher return though, I searched for a pre-made rated battleground group, and just friendly whispered ‘if you’re ever short a healer…’ the daily rewards for an RBG was at that point just over 22 million a win. Higher Return.

Next on my list was was to do the same with a Mythic+ group, I used to be asked to heal on a Friday evening with M Queen Sindel. Alongside Dupz and lead by an off healing monster of a DeathKnightSheldon (who, by the way, is incredibly jealous of this blog ;))

But I think that since Bombdigity switched mid patch to a healer, all the extra power is needed, Not that he’s healing needs improving, this guy can smash out the HPS and no doubt can withstand a 20+ keystone.

Perhaps I will make my own Mythic+ group and challenge the Queens throne someday xD

Whisper: ‘just one more RBG’Medacus: ‘defo’

I searched the pre-made group finder, spamming 9-14 keys for the AP, but principally for the group. Any group with members from the same guild, Medacus would throw on her best transmog, cheesiest smile and chat away, oh and keep people alive.

Before I knew it I had received more friend requests from people who were actually reinviting, than I’ve ever had before. Used to have a long friends list, full of that ‘one good run’ Tank or DPS, I’ve never heard or spoke to again lol

Go through your friend’s list now and you’ll see what I mean, you will scroll through saying to yourself ‘I know him’ or ‘I know her’ then it will happen…. ‘who?’ Blizzard gave the ability to set Notes to friend name before they gave the ability to open all mail from a mailbox. This unknown friend must be a global epidemic for Blizzard to do something about it!

Reuben, a Brewmaster Monk. Vocal tank with a Mythic DPS team behind her is almost as much progression as I have. Hit the Keystone jackpot here! the +14 went so smoothly it was close to boring and would have been if we hadn’t been on voice comms.

Voice can turn a boring grind from being the main focus, into something you happen to be doing while chilling with mates. This difference is how I think I’m not burning out, I very much doubt I’d be able to sit silently for a 6 hours Mythic+ grind without some form of distraction or social interaction. Would kill me, even through a Prydaz.

Days were planned now, RBG win for the 22 million, Keystones for serious AP. I’m not going to lie, raiding normal and heroic would also give a tonne of AP. I just can’t go through three nighthold runs a week with a group that could potentially wipe on every boss. Someone leave between resulting in a twenty-minute wait while a new member joins and is summoned. No thank you.

That was the plan and within a few days I was closing in on the 2 billion AP point, I was closing in on Concordance. Running Keys over 15 really made a huge difference alongside the broken shore buff. I was at trait 52, I had made it. I was one of the many members that completed grind. Done, never again…

The goal here was to get to 52 traits but by the end, I had received something greater. I was now a member of a friendly and rather successful RBG team, who I still play with and have so much fun.

A growing friends list with vocal and engaging people. The grind has finished but I’m actually finding I want to play more now. Some sort of cruel irony in that now the ‘need’ is gone the ‘want’ fills.

If you got this far into the blog, Thank you. Click on that ‘like’ button, share it on whichever social media platform you wish and/or leave a comment. Join the journey and watch as Medacus progresses Nightghold.

Anticipating for ‘grind’ queue pops, Looking for raids, random battlegrounds, with @Madskillzz stream playing as I normally do. It was armoury night. I’ve not been on Twitch much, only really following since beginning own stream about two weeks ago.

First time I’ve seen a live, real-time armoury check with feedback and discussion. Definitely game for this! Notoriously struggled with getting the theory just right in Legion. Have tendencies to play the way I feel is right. Rather than the way that could perform better using the correct stats and proven theory crafting. Always been a pitfall for Medacus.

Could march on wearing my item level gear a try to match Mads?!! Strut around like some peacock, but I’m not a laser turkey. Stats are so off balance, it would be laughable. I’m eager and equally nervous as I paste my armoury link onto the forum for all to see.

Eager and proud to show off Medacus, gear farmed, bosses downed, time spent in Mythic+. You better not slate her Mad lol

What if it’s all wrong? I’ve just posted my character, spending all the time getting to the position I’m at now. What if all these pro-Restos mock Medacus?! You better not mock her Mad lol

No, I’m far from some scrub noob that ignores all theory, it must be somewhat close to being on target. Always willing to refine Medacus as much as I can. You can bring it on Mad.

Armoury two before mine is up and this character is a 913 monster – Madskillzz responds after going through all elements “you could check others armoury. get outta here” was this my competition? oh damn, I’m out of my league. Go easy on the new guy Mad!

One armoury check left before I’m on, taking a while as pointer after pointer is related. Feeling better as this Character is being constructively built up. Ok, Mad I’m ready….

Medacus will now be found farming Nethershards in the broken shore for a new trinket until further notice….

If you got this far into the blog, Thank you. Click on that ‘like’ button, share it on whichever social media platform you wish and/or leave a comment. Join the journey and watch as Medacus progresses Nightghold.

Full Stream on that Armoury night can be found here. Please support Madskillzz to keep content like that coming!

Mage Tower is back up….this time I will get that Owl-on-a-Stick!
I’ve been blowing [Nethershard] in an effort to receive [Oneths Intuition] from the vendor. Only got 1700…. seventeen attempts. Easy, right?

First time I attempted, this was roughly a month ago, found myself stuck at the first phase. Not recognising really what was happening, just going for it. Influential problem looking back now I was not popping everything I had. Even potentially stack cooldowns. Figure that’s the raider/PvP’er rationality coming through. Would never pop [Incarnation: Tree of Life], [Potion of Prolonged Power] and [Perfectly Preserved Cake] at the same time! Just screams rank 1 overheal log xD

Found the challenge extremely frustrating. Type of frustration that starts to irrationally blame external influences: ‘this is overtuned, it’s impossible to complete’, ‘my mouse mat moved’, ‘I thought I felt the rotation of the earth for a moment then, it put me off’.

Recall at one point. My poor partner received a look that could literally burn a Soul out of a body, for sneezing during one of my better efforts at Stage one….I know what you’re thinking right, how could I forgive her after that.

Haven’t tackled during the month between. Don’t even know if it was up at any point. But it was up now, and I’m ready. Even prepped the partner to ‘keep low, move fast’ for the next few hours. I trawled the interweb to, forearm with knowledge of the talent builds, gear, tips, tricks, cheatcodes, anything to beat this. Big shout out to:

Each of the videos gave greater insight on how to finally conquer Thorn in this challenge. Now is the time. Actually had @MadskillzzTV stream playing while on these attempts, so when you watch the video please excuse the audio 🙂

Setup
Operating with a normal 5-man build for this just as if I was Mythic+’ing. [Abundance]
with [Germination] is super overpowered. Instant [Healing Touch] is soo nice. The healing output is insane, plus the mana per heal must be a number so high, it probably beats my arena rating (1400cr gladiator right here).

[Incarnation: Tree of Life] is a must in my opinion. Hate this talent, not even sure why so much, but I do. The idea of burst healing on a Druid just seems like a shoe that shouldn’t fit. Just like Crocs, yeah it works, perhaps even quite comfortable, but no, just no.

I also made a quick and dirty set using the orange tranq Ledgeo boots [Essence of Infusion] replacing [Prydaz]. Stage five, you personally take no damage and require to prioritise heal three adds, very quickly, and from very low. Boots are super good at this, shame that Nighthold isn’t more [Inner Peace] friendly.

If you’ve not seen the boots before, see picture below:

Hahaha ok, no more references to Crocs I’m feeling ill. If this goes viral I could be an affiliate partner with them xD ‘3% off Crocs, 75% off dignity’

Stage One
Marked the Commander before the start. So many times I’ve tried this and wondered why I can no longer heal. Only to find my mana has been drained, and I’m taking serious ticking damage. Marking the Commander made it just that little bit obvious to see him, and to aid preventing the sting hitting Granny by accident.

This isn’t a guide if you want one, check out the link above. I will briefly go over my thoughts on my attempt.

Stage One
Single archer – just kill him, boring phases till last really. Mage and Archer combo actually got super low as watching stream 🙂 Mage and Soldier, didn’t even bother to use Typhoon at this point. Done this stage about 20 times now, feel like second nature. Mage, double Soldier, usual bearform Regen trick or Blink / Votex.

Such substantial damage coming in, need 500k to keep up at least. More if you want to use a spare second to help with damage. Don’t Typhoon the Mage into the gate. It’s a nightmare to hide from Mana Sting. Soldier and Sting fixate is almost, if not certainly a wipe. Once the mage has fallen, time to break, sit on the floor and chill mana regen.

Stage Two
The stage is timed, so hid the display on the right otherwise I’ll just panic and watch the number tick away helplessly. Bearforming to start to get a greater shield from [Prydaz] while dialogue occurs. Pre-HoT’ing, then DoT’ing up the Flickering Eyes. Started recently using Scan tab targeting, quick switching on all the Eyes. Double DoTs on first two, Sunfire and Moonfire. Single Sunfire on rest.

Now the damage comes in. The first burst deflected by [Prydaz] shield. Second, the HoTs have squared this away quickly. Third, needs some healing attention. DoTs are now starting to drop off, reapplying quickly. After finding the first stage so hard, I had a horrible tendency to relax here. Found myself wiping to silly mistakes couple of times at this point.

Felspite Dominator and Fel bats
Know that the Fel Bats need to die first. easy enough as low health,
trying to also squeeze behind an orb that’s moving away for minimised movement. Damage can easily catch you off guard as it’s a pretty boring phase. but initially, it’s not low. Once all Bats are dead, I continued to hit the Dominator. If your hurt, then HoT and open gate, such a long open time on this.

Just realised this is the attempt may go online so switched down the volume on @MadskillzzTV stream.

Gate drops. Dispelled feared add and popped Tree to spam into damaged soldier stage with Regrowths. This point is three minutes out from concluding stage, when you will require Tree again. DoTs on Corrupted Risen Arbalest and Typhoon him during cast. A moderate amount of damage here popped Potion of Prolonged Power, on safe side also maximising DPS output.

The Gauntlet
This is the most infuriating step of the stage. Narrow walkway with Unstable Fel Orbs that hurts, LOTS. Got half way and blinked up the stairs… A number of times blink didn’t jump forward, just ran at full speed into an Orb of death. Panic Bearform and FRegen at the gate as I grazed an Orb or three on the landing. Oh, don’t stay in Bearform by the way. Furry fat ass can get hit while opening the door.

Stage Three
Dread Corruptor with Flickering Eyes, DoT Corruptor, DoT Eyes, pre-HoT. Didn’t even worry about spinning orbs of doom, multi-tasking just hit its limit. Lots of movement here. Too much, think I actually ran through the same beam several times I was moving so sporadically (just stand and heal through it lol)

Stage Four
Long Dialogue and plenty of time to wait for cooldowns to come back up. Also switched gear here for Croc Tranq set. No food buff so eating now as I’m this far xD

Finishes talk….end of the stage, if only all were that easy.

Stage 5
Started pre-HoT’ing at the point he says ‘Demons are so quick to turn on one another’, got about 5 secs after that. Not sure if this is set every time, number of attempts here now are low. But one team member takes more damage than other. Chosen member becomes my life bloom target. All stand in one spo,t so max uptime for Efflorescence. Rejuvenation on everything, needed or not, allowing for Abundance instant Healing Touches.

First wave of adds
Noticed you can’t heal one on the left, as soon as can to the one in the middle. Extra couple GCDs of healing makes a difference. Potion of Prolonged Power, Tree, couple Rejuvenations and a Wild Growth then spammed Regrowth as fast as my little finger could spam (should of also innovate during instant extremely expensive Regrowth phase). Need a macro to innovate and tree at the same time as such a mana suck. But all three adds were healed to full.

Refreshing HoTs on the team, don’t panic if they are low by next wave as you will be Tranqing. Cast a Wild Growth first as mastery stacks with tranq. All three healed again. Re-pre-HoT’ed (hell of a word, how did spell checker not implode then) and cast innovate here to spam Regrowths again only need two so all focus on single target healing. All three again. Stage clear. No adds at all.

Final Stage
Think I’ve only been here once before, had a decent pull which only had two adds. Died as I bearformed the blast which killed two members. Had time to prep though as more dialogue about his minions. Gear swap back to normal [Prydaz]/Aman’Thul setup and sitting down to drink for much-needed mana…wait what?! Quick transition, there is no extended dialogue without adds!!

Normally the time to drink, catch your breath, nope not this time. Lord Erdris Thorn. The only guy now standing between Medacus and that Owl-on-a-stick, has just caught me sitting on the floor drinking. So unprepared, don’t even think my hands were on my keyboard and mouse when he landed his first blow! I’m now doing this at 55% mana..RIP!

DoT him up early. The blast hurts, a tonne. Potion of prolonged power is all I have left. Everything is on cooldown. I’m done for, Thorn is gonna nuke me without breaking a sweat.

Kept getting the raid wide blast, mixed with pool ability. Was in position to drop pool, then I’d run and the blast would hit. Then I’d stand in middle and the pool would drop. It’s all back to front and topsy-turvery. Worse attempt EU.

Not sure if the team can die from a blast or just sit at one health, as this is where they were almost consistently. Blast is the only real damage they take but must be topped off before next one lands.

As the last of the non-green floor was covered by a pool. I knew I was DEAD…I wasn’t going to stop though!! Thorn was now at 12%, my DoTs are running, team members were giving it all, I could tell.

I can’t let them down now. Get as many HoTs out as I can now!! – DEAD

Turns out only missed a couple of seconds, Thorn was down. Although I wasn’t sure if this attempt counted or not.

pings of ‘GZ’ messages start flooding in…it was finally done.

If you got this far into the blog, Thank you. Click on that ‘like’ button, share it on whichever social media platform you wish and/or leave a comment. Join the journey and watch as Medacus progresses Nightghold.

Got him or them, however you want to distinguish! it’s down! An hour and a quarter inside the raid, and that moment truly start to dawn on people. This is a kill pull.

Day 3 includes a number of the principal mechanics, and the main ‘issues’ group were still needing to rectify, to push this boss to a conclusion.

I mentioned in a prior post that [Germination] may be the stronger alternative. Even though the majority of the group is either piled on bosses feet or ranged with healers, for the [Toxic Spores] to spawn without too a significant interference.

Again boss is pulled to the final third stage without too much effort. Multiple attempts got Arcanist sub 20% by the time all members had dropped. [Call of Night] is such an unforgiving ability that even the briefest of moments not soaking, will put the healers to far behind to sustain the raid.

Kinda chuffed. During the opening pull of the night, I was ranked over 90% above other healers. Second pull there were talent changes apparent. Our other Druid Nartie started using the same choices and healing in general increased. I don’t choose to ‘tell’ others, as I don’t see myself an expert in any way to justify explaining to them. I’m just a Druid that loves the game and I heal with some damn solid players, who have certainly help me with talent choices before.

Although, perhaps with further time healing with this group, I could research, offer advice in coordinating cooldowns with Dupz and Marrowgar. In time perhaps.

I’m sure, recalling back now, that the final pull was 5 attempts. Raid was extraordinarily on form, every ‘main’ player was there, a well-rounded composition. Each spending at least one night getting accustomed to these mechanics. Commenced this night at full speed.

Vantus Runed up, both raid leaders present, good to go! Kill pull itself feels a little blurry, as they tend to merge with the last somewhat. One thing I recall clearly is Dupz, one of the two raid leaders voice over comms repeating ‘Stay calm, don’t panic’, while Marrowgar the other, recited mechanic order and kill priorities. Both extremely helpful in their own right.

Managed to blanket a considerable portion of the raid with HoTs before – DEAD. Gutted to be dead during a clear like this. What did I say you about never getting the numbers on the logs that reflect healing?! haha. Will need to investigate but believe I may have topped the meters till the end. absolute necessity to commit keeping myself alive, even at expense of healing, it’s repeating too frequently now.

EDIT: Just rewatched the video back and I survived the full run till the end, though that I died but that must of been the run before! xD

LOOT!!

Holy hand grenades guys and gals [Parasitic Spore] dropped!!! RCLoot Council running today. Made that mistake in This Week…8th May blog. That was not going to happen tonight, no chance.

I put forward a BIS roll. IL over anything, the chance of getting two 925 [Persistence] or [Grovewalker] is slim to none before the release of Tomb of Sargaras. Even then Resto balancing has a prospect of shifting so much, it would be a waste not to apply for it.

Knowing that Life Relics are used, almost universally, and with a fellow Resto applying, it’s going to be a low chance of getting this.

A quick and concise post today, due to the majority of all you can write about in previous Days blog. Producing a couple of PvP arena blogs this weekend as friends from back in SoO are doing some casual games. Always enjoy getting back in touch with friends, Warcraft invariably brings people back sooner or later.

Time for [Star Augur Etraeus] now. Will blog a post on encounter prep for this, with where I find information and thoughts on what I’ve heard. Maybe even a basic build in my head, but this is so hard to do without seeing where and how the damage is coming in. No guide can tell you the strengths of your healing comp or incoming damage..only time can tell that.

If you got this far into the blog, Thank you. Click on that ‘like’ button, share it on whichever social media platform you wish and/or leave a comment. Join the journey and watch as Medacus progresses Nightghold.

Will continue to produce a blog post concerning the week past, full of the little moments that invade Medacus’ head and the Farm Nights, but isn’t quite enough content to ramble in an individually structured thread lol so this week….

Members of Mythic 1, the full Nighthold Mythic clear team are beginning to hit 52 traits, some with off specs almost as powerful as mine, making me feel like a part time amateur! Only 265 million to trait 49, I really need to focus strenuously on Resto as I’ve been raising Balance a couple traits behind, as a spec change can seem almost like a character swap or break, something that I do to retain the ‘want’ to grind.

Actually, threw a couple million into Guardian spec, will have a week or two doing the lower level daily duties as Tank, such as the weekend event, 4 Mythic+ clears, daily heroic or even LFR.

LFR…without reservation the worse place I could consider being, partly due to the regularly toxic nature of most, partly due to the fact there are NO mechanics that demand attention what so ever, and partly due to the fact that Normal, Heroic and 6/10 Mythic clears in Nighthold is sufficient for any Druid regardless of the spec they are playing.

But LFR has the best Augment Rune drop rate and I refuse to pay 500g a pop on the auction house, especially when if one person falls we wipe. That issue was completely reversed on Wednesdays Farm Night.

Krosus is a tight fight, the DPS check is high and the probability to miss an add soak or two boosts this further, more this boss is farmed, the more I envisage we will miss those adds. Raiders get comfortable and naturally would like to improve their performance, perhaps taking a closer soak or tunnelling the boss for just that extra sec.

For those wanting to improve DPS performance, I would highly recommend this video:

Scumbag DPS embed

Farm Night

Went with Germination for High Botanist Tel’arn, suddenly realising that we are running ALOT of farm content first, not exceptional setup and but not going to keep changing all the time.

Had to practically empty the guild bank for tome of clear mind again. Going to keep changing, can’t sit and let other healers beat me, even on farm night, just can’t do it.

That moment when you notice that RCLoot Council addon isn’t active once the second boss is down and missed loot chances, nevermind really only after Titanfrogged gear, don’t believe I missed too much. Maybe a cheeky trinket for Guardian spec but not going to cry over it.

Logs link for each boss

Logs link for each boss

Logs link for each boss

Logs link for each boss

Been asked to go on the ‘interrupt’ group for chromatic, eww avoid that job, nerfs HPS to the ground, sitting with tank and one other. mumbled on voice chat ‘…oh…ok’ moments before raid leader decided that another should go alternatively. Tranquillity is the first healing cooldown at the commencement of overwhelming power ability, makes sense to pre-hot and be in position for this early…lucky escape there Journeymen.

I paused once chromatic was down to review the loot tables. Something I must do thoroughly is examine the loot for other specs when it comes to re-roll. Since Druids have a balanced stat distribution is beneficial, there can sometimes be a prominent piece for Balance or Guardian that can be an enhancement for Resto.

Another reason for loot spec switching that I’ve noticed in Nighthold is, for instance, a boss could produce four pieces of gear for Resto spec, a piece that you are especially after, whereas balance could also share that piece yet only hold three on the table. Greater chance of receiving the one that you are after.

While immersed within the loot table (by the way got nothing but Artifact power on roll) new trial priest was practically solo healing the trash to Trilliax, pumping out 1.6 million HPS…lession learnt don’t let healers solo anything, it makes them look far too good xD

Trilliax was smooth this week, commonly there is a cake or two missed, can be quite devastating, but everything went really well. Up to the point, Medacus gets Arching Bonds with a melee. Pumping out 555k HPS at this time, my highest I believe, until the moment annihilation comes in. I’ve not seen the beam direction as hugging underbelly of the boss and see nothing but feet filling my screen, certainly not used to being that intimate as a healer – DEAD.

Did Spellblade get a slight buff this week or last? Damage of the frost debuff seems to really hurt. We take, and break on ten stacks but from about six onwards it’s just chunking away hard. Really pleased when we had five members dead and a tank, we were still pushing for the kill. I mentioned this in a previous post that every pull should be a pull to the finish.

Druid mobility is infamous, a gift and a curse. ordinarily, pre-pull have a soul stone on a healer or the shaman can ank back once we wipe. Saves the whole raid running back to the boss, and can really speed up attempts on progression. This time none were available, so off I go with my mobility to carry out the run for the team. Not going to complain as I have another role in the team, anything not to get benched lol

NO COMMS NO BOMBS

Raid leader placed two new trials on stacking points for Spellblade and instructed them to announce if they couldn’t for any reason. ‘please confirm?’ all waited and accepted that warm fuzzy feeling after thirty seconds of silence. A roar of laughter ignited in the chat room as all thought the same. promising start from our newest members.

Pushing onto Krosus, must remember this jump down. Become almost tradition, to run toward the left-hand side (shorter drop, less damage) and jump….and float gracefully into the water, noticing a mage has cast slow fall. For all Mages out there, pick on one person you know won’t notice, and cast it. The team seem to have hours of enjoyment with this!

One of the basic raids requirements is food buff and flask, for each pull. I had to make a weak aura to remind me of this, as previously I’ve never been in a group that is able or willing to spend the time farming for consumables. I’m terrible at remembering to do so each pull.

A couple of wipes on Krosus as expected, but pushing to the hardest transition point, slam five into soak into Orb six, this happens one after another in quick succession and is one of the hardest healing moments including the end bridge. End bridge is manageable in my opinion, as you’re so close to finishing you can literally just spam everything you got along with incredible uptime with efflorescence, which normally gets us through.

My duty to Tranq that transition, pre-hot, run to soak, pop tranq while running to the front. Easy enough, but the very moment I started to channel Tranq, the orb on landed on me. I’d just used my blink, was already close to melee range for follow up healing, oh damn – DEAD, everyone DEAD – humble Medacus through chat ‘sorry about that’, nothing but silent judgement pours through my headset 🙂

Damn shame about that last run I was cranking up HPS that could have been a best, hovering around 720k before tranq and healing requirement was only going to rack up.

223 mil left now till trait.

That moment you realise your Artifact is holding over 321 million in Artifact Power and you’re sitting on a new trait for, no ones know how long. I’ve even installed a bar on my User Interface to indicate how much till next rank – maybe need to make this a weak aura aswell. All my numbers could have pushed so much more.

Really can’t grind Artifact Power in night hold anymore. Three times (mostly) a week for however long it’s been now is breaking me, at least Mythic+ consists of greater variation, would be helpful to have equal Artifact Power rewards and time walking available constantly, so much more ways to grind then. I know right, shoot me for proposing ‘more ways’.

Can’t wait for Day 4 on High Botanist Tel’arn, It’s got to be a kill. If you got this far into the blog, Thank you. Click on that ‘like’ button, share it on whichever social media platform you wish and/or leave a comment. Join the journey and watch as Medacus progresses Nightghold.

Convinced this was done and dusted on Thursday (Check Day 2 if catching up). Except for the occasional stray death to one of the very, very, various one shot-able mechanics, we consistently reached phase three. How the hell is this not down!!!

Mythic difficulty deviates from others, all bosses are up from inception, a sort of council-esq fight. Solarist Tel’arn, Naturalist Tel’arn and Arcanist Tel’arn. This although is NOT a cleave game, Oh no, as if you dispatch one of the trebles, the health of the remaining is replenished. Grand on meters -just not great for progression, require effective, remorseless, single target destruction.

Partner is screaming at the TV behind with headset on. Something prehistoric from ARK: Survival Evolved has just sauntered over and mildly nibbled her I presume….At this point, I’ve learnt to mostly block ARK talk, just as she blocks WoW. Similar to when asked to take out the rubbish, gaze forward and deny all knowledge of the duty.

Raid Composition

One of two raid leaders couldn’t make it tonight, which is a shame, last attempt ahead reset. Performance is massively affected when one or other isn’t present: along the lines of the good cop, bad cop method, only really works with the other to pronounce which cop is which, but it also brings balance.

Brightside mentionable about raid comp though. There was a DPS spot open, and able to take back our team mascot! Tremonster is a feral Druid (damn decent one) used to get ridiculed on the meters in 7.1.5. Jokes about ‘he’s even below Trem?!’ appeared at regular interims. 7.2 sharpened kitties claws and Trem is an incredibly mechanically-mindful player, regularly switching, always soaking, albeit DPS was borderline tank 😉 Jokes makers of the team may find ‘even below Trem‘ position a rather easier situation to find themselves…

18% on the second pull, that’s how to start a raid!! Seemed strong, 90 percentile, eight and a half minute fight, 764k HPS never get those quantities on a kill though…ever xD Logs should tell why so high that run.

Several times left wishing I shouted in defiance while one or two members dead and a wipe is called, we stand in every pool or debuff with pending battle resurrection, finding High Botanist Tel’arn has dropped to 14%. On a 9 minute fight, to discard last 30 secs because it isn’t clean, or appears insurmountable, seems a waste.

First Mythic Tichondrius clear comprised of 4 four members, a mage tanking and 25 seconds past berserk, always push like it’s a kill every pull to the end regardless!

The other Controlled Chaos – Where we, Resto Druids shine, moderate raid widespread damage every time a purple pool of doom expands. A cheeky glance at Deadly Boss Mod timers judge when that drops in, 4 sec of pre-HoT’ing Rejuvenation and a Wild Growth on impact – operating with pro healers, each appreciating using cooldowns is safer than sitting on them. There is ordinarily less to heal on first Controlled Chaos than in second, so holding Essence of G’Hanir for such is a help.

Other than those two main unavoidable damage dispensers, additional abilities are fairly mundane, if dealt with in a particular way can be nullified, sometimes almost completely. Take Call of the Night for instance, absolutely ridiculous damage left isolated but stacked, does little deserving mention.

Ability worth mentioning is Toxic Spores, paradoxically better, more familiar with this fight the increasingly troublesome these will become. Ehhhh hows that? Imagine fresh progress night, the countdown for the first pull. The video watched on tactics a week ago in prep for this running through your head…

3…
2…
1…
SCATTER! Pools in wrong place, people running about in circles, what green thing? oh, I’ve collected three…by the way they hurt!

Always happens on opening attempts. Primarily focus on one mechanic a pull, really get it down. Not just fluke a way through, or recite a tooltip of by heart but to understand it, to a point fully knowing how mechanics are ordered, telegraphed by previous abilities, which classes/players seem more resilient. Massive differences from watching a Fatboss to ‘knowing’, wouldn’t say ‘I fully know’ any fight until it’s dead.

Point in which most have ‘mastered’ the Toxic Spores and are comfortable enough with prementioned principal mechanics, instinctively start avoiding Spores. Ahhhh and here in which lies the issue.

The more Spores avoided, more Spores there are, I know that popping immunity is the way to clear, but as mentioned in Day 2 post “if I can soak a spore or two to delay the immunity pop for a more ‘crunch’ moment then I will”. if that mentality multiplied by x Raid members, that’s a significant chunk of Spores absolved.

Not all at once obviously, here and there, any that can withstand it – Warlocks!! Damn Wraith”friend” can seriously self-heal through that. Rather heal predicted damage, damage that is occurring when we want it, over reactive when we need it:
‘better heal over the four Spores that just spawned beneath our feet…while fleeing Controlled Chaos…dodging Solar Collapse… remaining competitive in a Mythic healing roster…. Getting an ear bashing from the partner, about how some school kid has just eaten her favourite Dodo.’

Seems like Paladins read the Day 2 blog, received a Blessing of Wisdom from M-Queen Sindel (will cover the title soon) at the start of raid, and Gage wood-chipper, Retribution Paladin in second half, can’t emphasize how significant this spell is, if you possess a Ret Paladin, seize it from them!

Throw each of these together in an ultimate concluding phase, mixing in a little Parasitic Fetter action and it’s a nightmare. Positions are relatively the same but take longer to move. Can’t Blink may land in Solar Collapse. Unable to unite entire raid as half are dealing with buffed call of the night. Tanks on last legs as it is, then Recursive Strikes get ramped up. In other words…soo much fun, fully enjoying every moment of that phase.

Going with a fundamental Spring Blossoms build for this but looking at logs, not happy about uptime. The target is 17 sec or more, maximum targets during or not worth using. Fellow Resto Druid is also using Spring Blossoms, but legendary setup reflects that beautifully.

Velen’s Future Sight is overpowered. Super overpowered when used in conjunction with something that spams HoTs like Efflorescence, which can easily over-heal targets. Becoming a lot more apparent in Tomb of Sargaras – if fight position dictates. Whereas I use Aman’Thul’s Wisdom, leaning towards heavy germination use. Perhaps I’ll try germination instead on Thursday – Day 4.

Any thoughts on that would be welcome.

Coining on this fight as well, boots and the life relic looks tasty. Just Titanfrogging once or twice will offer almost max IL now.

First time actually dealing with the Quaking affix, rushed a couple lower level keys 4-9. However, damage from the dungeon itself is low enough to not take attention away from the week’s mutation, Teeming, Quaking and Fortified.

Running Maw of Souls +11 an initial eye opener, most of the trash was drawn to the bridge, a frequently recognised tactic. Mobs were piled and so were team members. The Quake hit. Chaos ensued, DPS scattered along with so the enemy after them. Paladin Tank was taking a smooth amount of incoming from a +11 but the focus was entirely centred on the group as there is no evading the Quake!

Second trash pack was clean as a Druid could wish, melee DPS already developing a triangle around the Tank relieving the pressure of previous engagements. Warlock held back hovering outside of the danger zone…
Teeming, as always entirely changing the ‘route’ pre-planned in any Mythic+ attendees mind. There are additional mobs here, do we need them? no one knows, no one ever does, as the Teeming week passes so quickly does the memory of it. The number of enemy forces demanded to be killed shifts alongside, everyone has a selective set of favoured packs i.e. ANY but the trash on the boat.

The closing week was Tyrannical, bosses now feel like down time to decompress and regain some mana, allow cooldowns to re-appear on action bars. The boss isn’t Helya this week, it’s Mariners.

Finishing this race with a two chest prize, a welcoming warm up to tonight events, wasn’t the smoothest or the most Artifact Power remunerating but team gelling for the keys to come.RasorenoZonnusKelyssaSinrate
All eager to advance with the fresh Court of Stars +13

Court of Stars,

Deaths. Deaths everywhere. Deaths all the time. Moving through the stairs and bypassing first bridge, sentries started throwing out 6 million damaging axes at the Tank without the slightest, or kindest warning to prepare. Jumping dogs and resonant slashes of Death plagued the start of this Mythic+, single chest or depleted it has to be.

Once moving to the second larger area, things settled into a predictable and controlled rhythm the enemy forces number racking up. Smooth damage and well-positioned Quakes provided time, and hope to return for this to be an upgrade key run.

Albeit time to deal with Talixae Flamewreath, a boss with a stacking mechanic, wait, stacking? but, but we have Quaking, that’s a direct contradiction. RNGesus may not help members receive a Sephuz’s Secret 😉 but was shining down today as the Quakes finished with enough time to comfortably stack without so much as a delay. This was transforming into a solid run.

Oh, ‘find the spy game’ within Court of Stars, recognition for that blizzard. recall rushing this last week with fellow guildies and depleting due to this ‘fun game’. Run was surely doomed, entirely comprised of males, if anything like me unable to find keys, glasses or way out of a jumper in attempts to get dressed in the morning.

Paladin Tank squashed fears as he reinforced with abilities of the holy light and found the spy without hesitation, still on track and in for a two chest. just the last boss to conquer.

No Tyrannical, no worries…one of the two chests presented Ekowraith, Creator of Worlds a reasonable Restro legendary, unfortunately, will not displace current setup of Prydaz, Xavaric’s Magnum Opus or Aman’Thul’s Wisdom…only that would be Velen’s Future Sight.

Which I’m so happy that our fellow Restro Druid in the raid team has. Honest. Looking onward to the continuation of the key with a Vault of the Wardens + 15 very soon

Massive shout-out to Mythic 1 Raze-Alonsus team for their hard work and dedication in the full Nighthold Mythic clear and Realm first!! Seven progression nights of lengthy pulls, but Gul’dan enviability broke.

I’m convinced that raiders of Mythic 1 are relieved as Judge (our rival guild) were closing the gap, clearing at an equal measure always one boss behind, one step behind this patch. Judge are an incredibly competitive guild, almost equal in stature and ability to Raze.

Taking a higher priority on obtaining realm first on Mythic Helya achievement, managing to pip us to the post only days before Mythic 1. Time spent on this boss evermore put them as the following team, the sacrifice required to complete Trials of Valor before Raze-Alonsus.

Helya is certainly an encounter that demands time to master, as a member of the Mythic 2 team, Medacus cleared the preceding bosses Odin and Guam. Both unbelievably easy once 7.2 innovations had hit, so kudos to guilds out beyond that defeated those and more ahead of those changes!

Helya although…

Even with patch variations and out gearing her, those mechanics stack on mechanics, within mechanics and I can fully understand why she was dubbed a ‘guild killer’, there is, in my opinion, no fight worse than the ones with individual responsibility, and Helya gave responsibilities like a Pez dispenser.

A sluggish conclusion to last night’s raid, silly wipes on a boss killed weeks past always pokes, in a way that makes you feel like you haven’t advanced since the first kill. I watched a youtube video by Preacher that reports why many guilds are burning out, it discusses many areas, the main one being that the kill times aren’t decreasing! due to mechanics they can’t be ‘farm killed’ in the way you would normally be able to, yeah sure you’ll be doing higher DPS/HPS but take [Trilliax] for instance, no matter how hard you punch that boss in the face, you still gotta eat cake 🙂 just imagine how that sounds to a non-wow player reading this!

Mythic 2 is looking strong, lots of bright and capable players in this team, great for progress not so grand for an assured spot on the roster though, I should be fine…hopefully…possibly. My real life daughter is standing next to me during raid attempting to pull a precariously wobbly tooth, argh it’s making me cringe.

Turns out that raid is soo competitive there are 30 participating members now for Mythic 2, this is excellent! what a massive leap from my last guild, struggling to take 9 throughout the launch. Ok so, even greater incentive to be concerned about a place on healing front..she’s really pulling at that tooth now, as she attempts to talk with a clearly bleeding mouth.

Got to bring my A-game tonight, [Krosus] should be a good warm up, straight forward mechanics. After a few bridge breaks, Spring Blossom should smash the healing! She’s put more effort into this tooth than I’ve seen her in anything for a while now, potential dentist by the way she is fumbling around I believe 🙂

First pull of the night…no not tooth already several into that, running Spring Blossom as raid stacks on the same side as the last beam which gives higher uptime…. doubt 20 seconds has past and I’ve stood bang in the middle of the beam, didn’t even stutter-step out of the way, just stood there – DEAD…She’s almost got that tooth out. I accept the resurrection and I’m enthusiastic to pretend that ‘noob’ moment didn’t occur. Resurrects as slam breaks the bridge, dropping suddenly into the water –DEAD…the tooths out and there’s jumps of joy and cheering through what appears to be a small puddle of blood in her mouth.

Seem to of taken ‘competitive raid spot’ notice to heart with that performance, this pull will be so much better I’ve got ‘game head’ on now. Though my stomach is turning from a midget wrenching teeth in my ear haha – DEAD again, twice I think, oh btw don’t ever Soul Stone on [Krosus] you revive where you died, back in the water in this instance – DEAD Let’s just write this boss off and hope neither of the two raid leaders noticed..or the other 23 raiders.

While leading the way to [High Botanist Tel’arn] our mages continued having fun sheeping every casting add in their sights, the contrast a simplistic cheese on the smoothness of clearing trash is crazy and let’s face it, there is a way to cheese trash, I’m in for it!

Finally, PROGRESS NIGHT on [High Botanist Tel’arn], if only I had been blogging prior would have realised the last time here we didn’t kill it, genuinely convinced walking into this raid that we had it last attempt, so close that honestly believed we did. Surely a swift down once tactics and mechanics are fresh in muscle memory.

Going to try and push on this progress to help the team, starting with early Bearform/[Frenzied Regeneration] combo to clear the orbs, with only having a set number of in-vulnerabilities, if I can delay them using theirs early especially as incoming damage is low that’s got to be a success, right?

Oh damn those orbs sting like hell, having to shift to Bearform and Regen’ing is something I’ve become accustomed to especially since receiving Prydaz (absorbs % equal to health – Bearform health ftw) but found self-healing, switching/regen’ing, switching/self-healing top up, too many globals before an explosion of damage connecting with the entire raid, leaving me reactively healing rather than blanketing the group ahead of damage.

Two Retribution Paladins in raid really should start sweet talking one for [Greater Blessing of Wisdom], I know that a Shaman or Priest should get it…but it’s really nice!! 🙂

Back to the progression, that is advancing undeniably great, problems seem to be silly mistakes that one shot a player, orb soaking is a massive one! Second pull we had cleared stage one and had 31% of stage two, a cheeky [Call of Night] debuff got the better of us though.

Pull four and we have pushed Tel’arn into the last phase, however, the chilled mechanics start to go HAM and a particularly ruthless Tank debuff creeps in. Seems to need to be really carefully swapped, not certain on the specific name or how it should be tanked, I invariably discovered that owning knowledge of Tank mechanics makes it so much simpler for me to paint a picture of anticipated damage, so will need to look into that.

Pausing for the mid-raid break and all vantus rune’ing up – LOVE vantus runes, extra 1,500 versatility is niice, niice x 25 for each raider is insane!! Now consistently tackling stage three, bar the odd silly death ‘let’s wipe’ pull. Still appears to be a minor Tank debuff argument trying to time DPS to push phase. The second main concern appears to be the adds that spawn during several mechanics now.

Real shame it’s Thursday now, no raid till Monday and following that length will need to refresher pulls on the boss, plus side having vantus runes up from the start that’s a definite bonus. Looking forward to putting up a post on Monday with a fresh new kill under Medacus‘ belt. See you all there!

Take a look as Sindelpt Twitch stream for a DPS view of Medacus‘s story : –
Link to a Stream of the attempts!! will be streaming own content soon!

Reset day!! Recently our raid leaders cut a full heroic run, suggesting increased focus on mythic progression, not something I’m completely convinced is a great idea, the appeal of still running heroic is extensive!! Titanfrog gear is literally the only upgrades you’re going to find now even when running lower half Mythic clears (Mythic+ has really broadened where you can get gear upgrades from) Secondly the artifact power you obtain from a heroic boss is pretty major, currently on Artifact Knowledge 32, and 3.2 million for a raid boss is tasty!! anyway….

Had a couple of new additions to the team, noticeably a new Holy Priest. He’s really good! too damn good haha caught me off guard and for the first few pulls he was beating me on the meters….hell no! now I know it’s not about the meters/HPS but more effective healing and mana management so on so, but I’m too damn competitive for that.

[Whispers in the Dark] dropped again can’t remember how many coins I spent trying to get that and since I’ve got it, drop after drop! 🙂 how many get the exact same thing?! Blizzard must be toying with us.

Finally, Mythic Farm time, coming up close to 20:00 now, it’s natural that the farm speed slows down a little when you have new peeps with you, bosses die as fast or quicker but there’s the ‘this is how we do it’ for each boss to go over.

Remembered to change talents during the exit/enter to switch raid, I’m so bad with at remembering [Tome of Clear Mind], forever asking or pulling out guild bank for a couple more, Druids have to swap tier 90 choices depending on fights (or as I’ve found depending on your legendary). Ran with the basic [Spring Blossoms] build. Stuck with that till [Trilliax]. Will go over my thoughts and why I think certain build are good for me on bosses on a separate full page soon.

Really must reflect about how to increase my healing on [Spellblade Aluriel], but not appropriate now as tonight will be pushing the last two farm bosses: [Krosus] and [Tichondrius], in advance of some solid progression again 🙂

Super psyched to get to [High botanist Tel’arn] and give that a bash, our ‘grown-up’ raiding brother Mythic 1 are currently fighting on Gul’dan, and this week I believe that there was a nerf so surely they get it soon. The Rank 2 on the realm is currently on 8/10 so a strong race here on Alonsus!